![]() ![]() Presumably, even fewer commute to lower Manhattan. In a 2017 study of the 346,000 commuters from New Jersey to Manhattan, fewer than 60,000 traveled by car. And in case he hasn’t read the data- more people from New Jersey commute to New York by mass transit than by personal transit. It reminds me of the scene in the old Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles where one character points a gun at his own head and says: “Don’t anyone move, or I’ll shoot.” Disrupting the Port Authority will hurt New Jersey at least as much as it harms New York, or to use the unfortunate nuclear analogy, the fallout won’t be limited to the east side of the Hudson River. Last week, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, coincidentally engaged in a nasty re-election campaign, threatened to use the “nuclear option” of holding up business in the bi-state Port Authority if the plan is allowed to go forward. It fell victim to Albany politics fueled by outer borough opposition to a toll that very few outer borough commuters would pay. Mike Bloomberg tried to enact congestion pricing back in 2007 as part of his landmark sustainability plan. After much delay, recently, public hearings began to help shape the parameters of the program’s operational design. Two years ago, the state of New York passed a law requiring the fee to be charged. The tolls would then be spent to make mass transit more efficient and effective. The concept is simple: Charge a toll on vehicles south of 60th street in Manhattan. That will also determine how much money the MTA winds up getting from it each year.London, Singapore, and Stockholm have all managed to do something that New York City has been unable to do enact and implement congestion pricing in its central business district. In our opinion, we need to minimize the number of exemptions.”Īnd these exemptions could end up being the key to how successful the program is. “And then we will really see what this is going to look like. “The Traffic Review and Mobility Board has to determine what the fees are going to be,” Tighe said. Who will pay the most, and who will be exempted has yet to be worked out. And it’s a boon for mass transportation since the estimated $1 billion raised per year from the pricing system will go to the MTA. “Many people who live in transit deserts, like part of my Assembly district in eastern Queens, feel they have no other option when they have to go into midtown Manhattan than to drive their cars,” Weprin said.īut supporters say it’s a win for the environment because it will get more polluting cars and trucks off the road. “It did not have the votes on its own.”Īccording to critics, tolling cars amounts to a regressive tax, hitting those who can least afford it the hardest. “This bill would not have passed on its own if Governor hadn’t put it but on the budget in 2019,” Democratic Assemblyman David Weprin of Queens said. But the program has since faced significant delays, and opponents say it remains very unpopular in boroughs outside Manhattan. The controversial plan to charge drivers a fee to enter Manhattan passed in the state legislature four years ago. That means a Finding of No Significance ( FONSI ) will come shortly as part of final environmental review and approval. The Federal Highway Administration just issued the letter of legal sufficiency to the MTA. Source says final approval of congestion pricing is imminent. “We know there is one more legal step where they have to put out the finding of no significant impact, meaning any potential impacts to the environment will be mitigated.” “I think we are going to see this happen very quickly,” Julie Tighe of the New York League of Conservation Voters said. While additional steps are still needed, the most significant hurdles have now been cleared. The details on that pricing structure have yet to be finalizedĬongestion pricing could be up and running in Manhattan as early as next March now that the federal government has all but signed off on the plan.The program will charge vehicles a fee to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.The federal government has now signed off on congestion pricing for Manhattan after years of delays.
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